In 2004 the fear is of Islamic fundamentalism, 100 years ago the Western world was beset by a similar fear - anarchy. A wave of assassinations swept seemingly unstoppably around the world; Tsar Alexander 2nd of Russia, President McKinley of the USA, President Carnot of France, the Empress Eugenie of Austria, the kings of Italy and Spain and thousands of police and government officials all died at anarchist hands. The spectre of the cloaked anarchist with bomb and dagger was as terrifying then as the bearded smirk of Bin Laden is today.

Britain, and in particular the East End of London, provided a safe refuge for thousands of immigrants fleeing the subsequent persecution and pogroms in Eastern Europe and Russia. Entry requirements did not exist. There were no passports or visas or gun laws.

The area around Whitechapel provided home for refugees from Latvia, Russia and the Baltic States and was a fertile breeding ground for imported anarchist ideas. As long as the immigrants did not interfere with British politics the authorities were content to let them be. In 1908 both Lenin and Stalin were in London, the first meeting of the Bolshevik party was held in Islington, anarchist ÈmigrÈs ran clubs and community centres where assassinations abroad were toasted and celebrated. The anarchist theoretician and bomb maker Johann Most lived among them as did Malatesta and Kropotkin.

Pressure was building for a curb on immigration. The public perception, provoked by an increasingly xenophobic press, was that of being overrun by ìhordesî of refugees and the first restriction, the Aliens Act, was introduced in 1905. The communities of foreign radicals in the East End ñ like many Asian communities today - were subject to hostility and resentment for keeping their own languages and culture. The days of the British safe haven were numbered and all it would take would be one spark to ignite Edwardian England and change British law forever. The spark would come on the 23rd of January 1909 when two Latvian anarchists would rob a wages bag and initiate a brutal and audacious chase involving over 100 pursuers that would cover three London boroughs, last two hours, put a child and a policeman in the morgue and leave 30 people nursing bullet wounds and a nation wondering where to go now its peace was shattered.

To commemorate the centenary of the Tottenham Outrage you are invited to retrace the steps of the robbery and the chase. The walk will be led by filmmaker Si Mitchell and along the route we hope to discuss the events, the reasons for their occurence and the legacy they left behind. Meet 11am on the corner of Chesnut Road and Tottenham High Road, Friday Jan 23rd 2009. See you there.